Carrboro

El Sur Comes South — Pedro Lash with Los Artistas & local sonideros; Center Gallery. Kardelen (Snow Drop) — Works by Pelin Yazar Canez, Orhan Alpaslan, Asuman Dogan, Atanur Dogan and Nihal Kececi to celebrate International Women’s Month. The ArtsCenter. Main St. 929-2787, artscenterlive.org

Mixed media by Chief — a tribute to the artist’s new daughter. Showing through March. The Beehive Salon. 102 E Weaver St. 932-4483, thebeehive-salon.com

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Special Events

UNC Friends of the Library Book Sale — Thu, Mar 27, 5-8pm: Friends of the Library preview; Fri, Mar 28, 9am-8pm: Public sale; Sat, Mar 29, 9am to noon: $3 per bag. American Legion Building, 1714 Legion Rd, Chapel Hill. Benefit the University Library Endowment. 962-4207 or www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/2008/BookSale.html for more info.

Fishy Fourth Friday — March 28, downtown Pittsboro. Art, food and a free movie. Local shops and galleries stay open late. Starts at 6 pm with this month’s movie “Psycho” starting at dusk. in the Capital Bank Parking lot. Sponsored by The Pittsboro Merchants Association. 260-9725 or pittsboroshops.com for info. Outside events subject to the weather.

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Members of the University Woman’s Club, Linda Folda, Ann Hillenbrand, Betsy Bryan, Welshie Potts and to the left/rear in white, Eleanor Morris, prepare for a book sale that starts today. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.

By Valarie Schwartz

Ours is a book-crazy community.

Why not? It’s the stock-in-trade for many who live here — scholars, professors, writers — creating a booming business for used-book sellers and local libraries as people move, downsize or otherwise clear out their old books.

Bibliophiles mark their calendars for the months when the public libraries hold their quarterly sales. But the Wilson Library sale, which happens every other year, gets a little less attention.

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A story last week on the Board of Aldermen meeting should have noted that planning board members serve three-year terms and that the term for a seat vacated when Lydia Lavelle was elected to the Board of Aldermen expires in January 2009.

I have not heard back from my congressman, who I wrote to several days ago concerning the violence visited upon protesters in Lhasa and other places in Tibet.

I do not expect much help to come from the United States government in this area. Officialdom abandoned Tibet long ago in pursuit of the markets and manufacturing of China.

Now, with the Olympics putting a spotlight on the country, there are clear and unsettling reminders of what we got from that bargain and what has happened and what is happening in Tibet.

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By James Carnahan

Last chance for citizens to speak to the Orange County Commissioners about Buckhorn Village is Tuesday, April 1 (no fooling). The project seems to have a lot of momentum, but is its approval in our best interests? The potential revenues are being touted as clean & easy dollars, but I think nothing could be further from the truth. Even if the development were to have a significant residential component, it is fundamentally highway-oriented and import-dependent. Why on earth — why, for Earth’s sake, would we want more of that? Why on earth would we want another Southpoint?

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By Chris Fitzsimon 

Tuition at University of North Carolina campuses is the subject of the latest skirmish between Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore in their battle for the Democratic nomination for governor.

A Moore television ad accuses Perdue of “leading the charge” for tuition increases in her position as chair of the Senate budget committee in the mid-1990s and cites Perdue’s comment that one proposed increase was just “beer and party money.” Perdue responded with an ad of her own that says Moore voted for tuition increases too when he was a member of the House.

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Why is this option before the voters?

In 2007, the state Legislature passed a law to overhaul the way Medicaid is paid. Before, counties were responsible for paying part of Medicaid expenses. Under the new law, the state takes on the county’s share of Medicaid, and in exchange counties have to reduce their sales taxes from 2.5 percent to 2 percent in 2010.

The new law gives counties an option to recover lost tax revenue. They can either raise sales taxes another 0.25 percent or put in a tax on land transfers of 0.1 percent  to 0.4 percent. Counties cannot pass either of these new taxes without voters’ approval. A special referendum has to be held and approved by the majority of voters in the county. If the referendum loses, the county cannot collect the tax.

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Luke Martin, 20, and Danny Randolph, 21, use rakes and shovels to move gravel on the floor of the greenhouse so they can place down plastic sheeting to prevent weeds from growing. Staff photo by Morgan Siem.

By Morgan Siem
Carrboro Commons Writer

Visitors to Frank Porter Graham Elementary School might notice a change of scenery at the “Home of the Lions.” Along the sidewalk of painted lion paws is the greenhouse, which until last week was in obvious disrepair. Now it is ready to welcome classes of young scientists after being renovated on Saturday.

“It looks beautiful,” science teacher Livy Ludington said Monday. “It was so nice to come in to school today and see it like that.”

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Battle of the Books teams representing the four middle schools in our district faced off on March 7 to determine the district champion for 2007-2008.

First place went to Phillips Middle, who will now represent CHCCS at the Piedmont Regional Battle of the Books at Randolph Community College in Asheboro on April 18. Team members include: Apoorva Iyengar, Kelly Jiang, Sidney Karesh, Anne Kelley, Austin Kelly, Sandhya Mahadevan, Emma McNairy, Maria Adriana Rojas, Lenny Rosen, Lars (Lara) Sahoo, William Snoeyink, Cissy Yu and additional team members Colleen Cui, Anne George, Elianna Goldstein, Charles Higgins, Kate Holcomb, Vincent Lai, Deborah Lawrence, Austin Liu, Ben Marks, Kayla Miron, Sidney Shank, Lauren Swers, Maya Weinaberg and Zhongshan Zhu.

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Smith Middle School Latin teacher Great Moseley has been selected to attend the Classical Summer School program at the American Academy in Rome and Cumae, June 16 through August 9.

The first part of the workshop will take place in Rome, while the “Vergilian Society” portion will be held in Cumae. As a participant, Moseley will study historical and archaeological sites throughout Italy and acquire resources for her classroom.

By Frank Heath
Sports Columnist

It seems likely that only on this past Sunday, at NC State’s home arena, the RBC Center, could one have witnessed such a scene. There, in plain view, a sea of light blue-clad fans screamed their heads off for a team from North Carolina clad in State red uniforms, as that team came back from 17 points down to upset a highly ranked opponent, the Georgetown Hoyas — those very same Hoyas who happened to have bounced UNC from the post-season twice in the past six seasons.

Other than 1,500 or so Georgetown fans who had scored tickets, every soul in the Wolfpack’s lair seemed to get caught up in Davidson Wildcat hysteria. (Well, there was that one sad-looking guy in the Duke shirt who wandered the aisles and really didn’t look consolable.)

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By Katie Spencer
Carrboro Commons Writer

In the green mountains of Honduras, Chapel Hill resident Hunter Barbee found the familiar logo of his favorite coffee shop. And it wasn’t Starbucks. It was Carrboro’s own Open Eye Cafe.

Barbee, 22, was touring a coffee farm in the small highland village of Copan with a group that spent the week building houses with Habitat for Humanity.

“I just walked in, and the first thing I saw was an Open Eye sticker on the office window,” Barbee said. “I did a double-take.”

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Central Carolina Community College will host the workshop Green and Passive Solar Case Study and Design Lab at the Pittsboro Campus.

It includes an exercise to determine optimal lot siting for green building and an exercise to design or modify a home plan to optimize renewable energy and more. The workshop is from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on April 5. To register, call 542-6495 ext. 223, or register onsite at 8:30 a.m. at the Multipurpose Room in Building 2. The class is $90.

The Chapel Hill Garden Club will hold its Spring Garden Tour Saturday, April 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, April 13, from noon to 4 p.m. The tour is self-guided and includes 10 private gardens. Refreshments, exhibits, a raffle, live music, demonstrations and plant sales will be held at the Botanical Garden. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 day of. Children’s tickets are $5, day of only. For information and tickets, contact the Botanical Garden at 962-0522 or visit www.chapelhillgardentour.net